ProtectorProtected
by Vandalbear
Summary: How would Ichika's life had been at ISA if he was stronger and intelligent? What are these strange feelings he has?
1. chapter 1

**A/n:** This is a work of fiction that, while it follows the events and settings in Infinite Stratos, changes have been made to Ichika's character. Specifically he is stronger than how he appears in the anime, more intelligent and a little less dense lol. He is not overpowered but definitely stronger.

Warning: this will eventually follow the wincest route, as I am keenly interested in displaying the conflicting personalities of Chifuyu Orimura, the harsh IS instructor and the softer sister that Ichika sees.

There maybe some harem shenanigans, I haven't decided on that yet

This is my first fanfiction, after being dissatisfied with the anime I wrote it how I think it should be. Please feel free to review comment and offer criticisms/advice. Cheers Vandalbear.

I do not own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah...

 **Prologue**

Ichika Orimura yawned and fumbled to turn off the alarm clock that was buzzing in his ear. 'Dammit' he thought, 'Time to get up, I don't want to but 5:00 in the morning is a perfect time to train.' So he proceeded to get up, dress and train in both Kendo and Aikido like he had every day since his sister, Chifuyu, had rescued him from kidnappers during the second Mondo Grosso. 'I can't have Chifuyu-nee protecting me my whole life' he said to himself as he repeatedly swung a heavy wooden Katana over his head.

'Because of me she lost the 2nd Mondo Grosso and had to go to Germany for a year'

 _Swing_

'She doesn't have a life because of me'

 _Swing_

'All she does is work to pay the bills because of me'

 _Swing_

'Next time I'm going to stand up for myself and not let her be disappointed in me'

 _SWING!_

Unbeknownst to Ichika, Chifuyu Orimura had woken up and, after having a shower had proceeded to dress and descend to the kitchen in order to have some coffee. While she was making the coffee she silently observed her younger brother switch from Kendo practice to Aikido.

'Ah' she thought 'He's practicing his forms again, his technique has quite improved since he took up Aikido, I'm so proud that he's a 2nd Dan black belt already!' Not that she had ever told him that, although she loved him dearly and would give up the world for him, she found it extremely hard to voice her feelings, her military training as an IS pilot and Teacher/Instructor had made her acquire a cool almost cold like demeanour that was all professional and allowed no room for emotion.

"Ichika," Chifuyu said, glancing over some exam paperwork from the ISA, "You don't have to attend the local metropolitan high school if you don't want to, with your grades you could easily get into one of the better private schools you know"

Ichika turned from the stove where he was preparing breakfast and stared at Chifuyu, absently quite shocked that she would want him to go to an expensive place like that. "Chifuyu-nee, we can't afford that, I don't want you to spend money you don't have to, I'm quite content to go to the local high school, besides which if it's local I can commute there daily so I can keep the house ready for you when you can get home." He responded easily with a smile.

'How does he do that?' Chifuyu thought as she outwardly said "Thanks for the meal" and began to tuck into the delicious breakfast that Ichika had placed in front of her. 'He's never thinking of himself, he's just concerned about me, goddammit I would have made the money situation worked you know!'

"Chifuyu-nee when are you coming home again?" Ichika's voice sounded hopeful.

"I don't know it might not be for a couple of weeks, I'll let you know when I'll be home."

"Okay"

'I've disappointed him again, I've got to make sure he knows how proud of him I am' Chifuyu thought as she said "Ichika, I-"

The words just died on her tongue, she couldn't bring herself to say it, for his part Ichika raised his eyebrows and asked "Yes?"

..."Nothing"

Ichika was lost, he knew that the entrance exam to the local high school was somewhere in this municipal building, but for the life of him he couldn't find it. As he turned a corner and opened a door he stopped dead at the sight in front of him. 'That's an IS' he thought as he reached out his hand to touch it. All at once a blinding flash of light came out of nowhere...

The spanish mackerel meal set that lay in front of Chifuyu Orimura was largely untouched as she perused the document in front of her, the document was more interesting than the food because after coming from a weekend of Ichika's cooking, cafeteria meal sets did not measure up in her estimation. 'I'm not biased,' she thought, 'The fact is that Ichika is a great cook, and now I have to suffer a few weeks of this bland uninspiring cooking, I really need him to teach me how to cook better meals for myself.' She abruptly cut off her train of thought as two other unbidden thoughts came to her; the first was 'Shouldn't it be the other way around?' And the second more disturbing thought was 'How often have I told him that his cooking is great?' Try as she might she couldn't remember a single positive comment that she had made to him about his cooking, 'Dammit why haven't I ever said anything? He must surely resent me for basically treating him like a servant.' To her shock and dismay she suddenly found herself on the verge of tears, however she quickly regained her composure by immersing herself in the document in front of her.

'Hmmm,' she mused 'We have a few girls who've passed the entrance exams here with serious potential. Of course there's Cecilia Alcott the representative of Britain but we also have Houki Shinonono, not only an accomplished Kendo practioner (with tournament wins under her belt) but also the sister of Tabane Shinonono the inventor of the IS.' Chifuyu frowned for a second realising that she hadn't heard from her friend Tabane in quite some time, 'Not that that's surprising mind you, despite her genius, she's one of the most eccentric people I've ever met' Chifuyu suddenly snorted thinking that bat-shit crazy might be a more apt description.

 _BANG!_

The office door suddenly flew open and standing there was Chifuyu's fellow teacher at ISA, the slightly ditzy but intelligent Maya Yamada. Although slightly out of breath and her glasses askew, Yamada-sensei nonetheless was perfectly respectful towards Chifuyu as she explained the reason for her abrupt and loud arrival.

"Orimura-sensei, please excuse my rudeness but I have urgent news for you." She weezed out whilst slightly bowing to Chifuyu.

"What is it Yamada-sensei? And please try to calm yourself down."

"I will but you have to hear this. It appears that during the entrance exam testing phase today an unauthorized person activated a training Uchigane IS. When the examiners present told the person to take the test, he defeated the examiner with the greatest of ease using excellent footwork combined with remarkable Katana skills, the test was over in a manner of seconds with the examiner's IS drained of all shield energy and suffering significant mechanical damage!"

Chifuyu's face seemed to darken as her eyes narrowed "He?" she asked, "Common accepted belief is that men can't operate IS."

"I know that Orimura-sensei, however it is established fact from videos inside the testing arena that the participant was male," Yamada-sensei replied and paused before saying "I wonder if it's because of who he is?" rather pointedly looking at Chifuyu.

An unnoticeable cold shiver ran up Chifuyu's spine as she quietly asked "And who is our impressive _male_ applicant?" Closing her eye's she already knew the name Yamada-sensei would respond with after speaking like that.

"Ichika Orimura."


	2. Protectorprotected

**A/n:** This is a work of fiction that, while it follows the events and settings in Infinite Stratos, changes have been made to Ichika's character. Specifically he is stronger than how he appears in the anime, more intelligent and a little less dense lol. He is not overpowered but definitely stronger.

Warning: this will eventually follow the wincest route, as I am keenly interested in displaying the conflicting personalities of Chifuyu Orimura, the harsh IS instructor and the softer sister that Ichika sees.

There maybe some harem shenanigans, I haven't decided on that yet

This is my first fanfiction, after being dissatisfied with the anime I wrote it how I think it should be. Please feel free to review comment and offer criticisms/advice. Cheers Vandalbear.

I do not own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah...

 **Chapter One**

Ichika Orimura had just finished his morning Kendo and Aikido training and was about to take a shower when the phone rang.

"Hello Orimura residence," he said into the receiver.

"Hello Ichika, are you all set for tomorrow?" Chifuyu Orimura asked

"Yes Chifuyu-nee, I have been studying the training manual and have my clothes and bags already to go, although I wish ISA wasn't a boarding school."

"Well it is established as a safe place for girls- I mean students to train safely with IS's and without interference from governments and corporations who wish to take advantage of them, as I'm sure you'd appreciate." Chifuyu responded rather dryly given the intense scrutiny that Ichika had been under since his spectacular display a week ago.

"I realise that nee-san but if I'm there it means I can't be at home to make sure you're greeted when you can get home from your work..."

There was a pause before Chifuyu responded with what seemed like a smile in her voice, "I'm sure we can work it out. Talk to you later Ichika."

"See you nee-san."

 _Click_

Ending the call Chifuyu couldn't but help releasing a tiny chuckle accompanying a small smile, as she realised that what had seemed like an impossible situation had now become an excellent opportunity to spend more time with Ichika. 'Hopefully I'll be able to right some of the wrongs I've done to him by us being together a lot more of the time.' She thought as she went back through the paperwork before her.

Ichika scratched his head as he considered his sister's final words to him 'What did she mean "work it out"? It's almost like a I'm missing a joke here.' His thoughts turned to his sister, at 24 she was still an idol to all the world despite not using an IS publicly for a few years now, 'Not since the 2nd Mondo Grosso,' Ichika thought sourly, 'That being said she still commands significant authority with the government pulling all those strings for me after what happened this week, I still don't know what it is she does for a living though.' Ichika brooded on this for a while before realising it wouldn't change anything, she was still protecting him and he needed to rectify the situation as soon as possible.

Ichika's jaw was currently in the lowest position it could go as he stared up at the gleaming white buildings that were towering over him as he surveyed the campus of the Infinite Stratos Academy. 'It's stunning,' he thought, 'Hopefully I'll be able to fit in here reasonably easily and make some friends.' However that thought ended when he realised that all of his "friends" were going to be female, as the only known male in the world who can pilot an IS the mission to make friends had just become quite a nerve-wracking thought. There was suddenly a bell tolling through the campus indicating that students should start making their way to their assigned class rooms.

As made his way to class 1-1, Ichika couldn't help but notice all the stares, whispers, and giggles that followed him. At 188 cm and around 90 kg he was quite an attractive looking teenager, with short black unruly hair and dark red eyes, with a finely chiseled face that still had a look of boyish innocence, accompanied with broad shoulders and back with a lean figure it was no surprise that he was drawing the attention of his fellow female classmates, even in a normal high school he still would have drawn stares for his handsome appearance.

For his part Ichika was nervously walking towards his classroom with an air of apprehension, 'I'm not going to know anybody here,' he realised. However when he entered the classroom he was proven wrong when he saw seated on the other side of the classroom next to the window was his old friend Houki Shinonono from his days of training Kendo at her family's dojo. For her part Houki's eye's widened noticeably when she spied Ichika before quickly turning to look out the window her long brown-black hair tied in a tail with a sash flowing behind the movement of her head.

Ichika scratched his head at her curious reaction before noticing that all the other girls were staring at him, so he quickly sat down in a free seat and tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. Just as he did so the bell sounded once more and a teacher of average height with glasses, short green hair, entered the room with a small smile on her face.

"Welcome everyone to ISA, I will be your assistant home-room teacher, Maya Yamada-sensei." She introduced herself as casting her eyes over the room of girls and lingering for a moment on the single male student seated in the center aisle. "Over the next three years you will be instructed in the use of IS as well as normal high school curriculum, let's make the best use of our time here everyone. Okay we'll start today with class introduction..." Ichika tuned out to her voice whilst looking around, again looking at Houki who again turned her face to the window. 'What's with her?' He thought as a voice intruded upon his awareness.

"...Orimura-kun? Orimura-kun?" Yamada-sensei asked "We are at "O" now if you could introduce yourself?"

"Oh right," Ichika answered standing up; "My name is Ichika Orimura, er pleased to meet you, er that's all!" He stated as the girls looked on in disbelief.

 _WHACK!_

"Can't you do better than that as an introduction Orimura?" Chifuyu said as she entered the room clocking Ichika with the text book in her hand.

"Chifuyu-n..."

 _WHACK!_

"That's Orimura-sensei to you in school, Orimura, understand?"

"Yes Orimura-sensei" Ichika answered in a state of shock, 'She's a teacher? And judging by the reactions of the others a pretty famous one too.'

"Sheesh they always put the idiots in my class." Chifuyu said out loud whilst looking over the throng of girls praising her. Inwardly thinking that it had been priceless to see Ichika's reaction to her as his teacher. 'Now I'll be able to watch over him and also spend more time with him as well,' she thought feeling her stress from having to instruct a new class start to melt away.

After the day's classes and an awkward encounter with Houki on the rooftop, Ichika found himself alone in his dorm room reflecting on the day. It had been a surprising day to say the least with both all the girls staring at him and an old childhood friend as well; but the shock of the day had been his sister. 'I can't believe she's been working here all this time,' he mused 'Not that I actually ever asked what she did for a living.' He thought sourly, he wondered why he never asked and didn't get an answer to that when he heard a knock on the door...

"Yes hello?" He asked as he opened the door.

"Hello Orimura I just came by to see that you were settling in ok." Chifuyu responded "May I come in for a while?"

"Of course Chif- Orimura-sensei, please make yourself at home." Ichika replied closing the door behind her, 'So this is why she's hardly ever home,' he thought 'She stays at the academy as a dorm supervisor.'

"Ichika."

"Yes?"

"You can drop the formalities if you'd like when we are in private, it's only in public and school hours that we must address each other appropriately." Chifuyu said with a hint of nervousness about her, inwardly hoping he would agree to that request.

"I'd like that Chifuyu-nee," Ichika smiled as he thought he detected a slight exhale of held breath from his sister. "Would you like some tea?"

"Yes please, so how are you finding it here? Pretty daunting I'd guess?"

"Well yeah a little," he replied handing her a mug of tea before they both sat down at the table, "It's a little off-putting when you're the only guy and your childhood friend is now awkward with you," He frowned at that, but then continued, "But you were the biggest surprise, I was stunned to see that you were a teacher, I assumed you worked for the government or something!"

Chifuyu chuckled a little at that and said "Well you never did actually ask what I did for a living. Anyway I have news for you Cecilia Alcott a girl in your class, you know the one with the blonde hair wishes to challenge you for the position of class representative, do you want to accept? She's strong you know."

"I know her, she was the only one giving me dark looks all day, she's the national representative of Britain isn't She?"

"Yes, she has her own IS too."

"Hmmm I'll do it, I need to prove I'm worth something, preferably sooner rather than later."

Chifuyu was stunned, 'His worth? Does he believe that he's worthless? How long has he thought that way?' She had to set him right.

"ICHIKA!" She almost yelled "How could you even think that? Listen to me, you have never been, nor have I ever thought you were worthless. You are my precious brother and I love you more than words, so please don't think that way..." Chifuyu's voice trailed off and she realised she was almost out of breath. Hanging her head down she continued "I know I've always been working and have not been there for you, but I was aware just how much you had matured and become a fine man that I am proud to call my brother."

Chifuyu looked up in utter dismay when she realised that Ichika was sitting there stunned with tears rolling down his face and heaving sobs wracking his body. In one instant Chifuyu sped around the table and gathered up her crying brother in her arms. He immediately wrapped both arms around her and sobbed relentlessly into her shoulder causing her tracksuit top to darken and her long black hair to become wet with his tears.

After what seemed like an eternity Ichika's crying abated and he mumbled "I'm sorry Chifuyu-nee, I just thought that I was a burden to you holding you back from having a life..." Chifuyu cut him off immediately by saying in a soothing tone "Hush now you never were and never will be a burden to me, I actually thought..."

"Thought what?"

Chifuyu took a deep breath, looked down and replied "I thought you would resent me or even hate me for never being there for you or for never praising you. I was just too scared to say anything."

"I would never think that!" Ichika firmly replied, his voice hardening "You brought me up to be a respectable person, you SAVED MY LIFE! From kidnappers whilst giving up your IS career and the 2nd Mondo Grosso. How could I hate you for that? You are my beautiful dear sister and I love as well!" Chifuyu brought her head up with a light pink blush on her white cheeks, and smiled softly " We're both terrible at communicating aren't we?"

"Yeah, but from now on we can get better at it."


	3. Protectorprotected (04-07 18:30:24)

**Chapter Two**

Ichika, Chifuyu, and Houki were waiting in the garage area of the arena at ISA. Whilst Houki was wearing the standard ISA uniform and Chifuyu was in her teacher's attire, Ichika felt entirely uncomfortable in a black skin tight two piece that reminded him of a wetsuit. Chifuyu stared at Ichika out of the corner of her eye, 'Yes he's definitely filled out these last couple of years, all that training has done wonders for his physique. What an astounding figure, you'd think that he was carved by a sculptor.' Chifuyu suddenly jerked back to reality, 'What the hell am I thinking? This is my brother we're talking about!' Disturbed by those thoughts and feelings that came out of nowhere Chifuyu mentally noted to examine the origin of them later, clearing her throat she said, "Orimura, stop fidgeting your IS will be arriving shortly. Also Shinonono, thank you for sparing with Orimura this past week. Having you help train him will do wonders for his technique."

"No it was my pleasure Orimura-sensei," Houki replied in a small voice a red blush staining her cheeks, unused to the praise, especially from Chifuyu Orimura the strongest IS pilot the world has ever known. Looking down she continued, "I wasn't able to do much anyway, Ichika's technique and stamina are on the same level as mine, maybe even higher." All she got in response from Chifuyu was a slightly arched eyebrow and a twitch at the corner of her mouth. To Houki it meant nothing, but to Ichika, who knew almost all of his sister's physical cues it meant a great deal. 'She's pleased to hear me praised like that!' he silently exalted, ever since that outpouring of emotion a week ago from the both of them Ichika and Chifuyu had already started being more comfortable with each other, it's like they had gone from polite strangers to an almost "normal" brother and sister. Thinking about it the other thing that had happened that night was the realisation that at 24 his sister was an incredibly beautiful woman, with her slightly angular face (somewhat similar to Ichika's) her white almost alabaster smooth skin, the long black silky slightly unruly hair that stretched down just past her hips, her incredible womanly curves with that amazing chest... 'Crap get a grip on yourself,' Ichika mentally scolded himself 'She's your freaking sister!' Plus he was concerned that given what he was wearing any bodily "reaction" to his current thoughts would be instantly noticeable. Taking a deep breath and exhaling it slowly Ichika mentally prepared himself for the challenge that lay in front of him, for reasons unknown to him Cecilia Alcott the representative of Britain had taken an instant dislike to him and had challenged him to a duel in the arena for the position of class representative.

"Orimura-kun, Orimura-kun, your personal IS has arrived!" Yamada-sensei's voice called out over the PA.

"Okay Orimura, get setup and head into the arena." Chifuyu said as she started walking to the control room.

"Good luck Ichika." Houki told him rather nervously.

"Thanks Houki." Ichika replied heading over to the military style delivery truck that was unloading what was to be his personal IS.

'Hmmm,' Chifuyu mused looking at the specs of Ichika's IS 'Byakushiki huh? It looks like it's an attack focused IS with an all out single hit combo, almost like it was made for him. What's this? Yukihira Niigata? My weapon from the Mondo Grosso? I smell Tabane's hand in all of this!'

On the monitors in front of her and Yamada-sensei Ichika and Cecilia were clearly visible floating above the arena awaiting the start signal.

"How do you think he'll go Orimura-sensei?" Her assistant asked.

"Well he might make one or two mistakes, but over the years he's grown incredibly strong and resilient, plus he defeated an examiner quite easily in the entrance exam did he not?" Chifuyu responded arching an eyebrow and forming a smile on her lips. While Yamada-sensei looked on in shock at this rare outward display of emotion from her friend, Chifuyu's thoughts had turned to the moment last week when they had started to bring down the barriers between herself and Ichika. 'I'll go over to his room tonight to see how he's doing after the match,' she thought inwardly frowning about those other feelings just before when she saw Ichika in his IS suit. What was this warmth of feeling spreading throughout her body when she viewed him? Where did it come from? 'This was more than sisterly love.' She reluctantly acknowledged 'These feelings are not allowed, it would cause Ichika and myself harm to our relationship now, after the coldness for so long had dissipated, if I follow down this route. I'll just be his sister and protector watching over him.' She resolved but still acknowledging the stab of pain though her heart like a needle with a small grunt. Yamada-sensei looked over at her slightly concerned but then called into the mic, "Orimura-kun, your IS is currently in the default settings, as you use it more and interact with it, it will get better and feel more natural."

"Right sensei." Ichika replied drawing the Yukihira, 'I will make my sister proud and become strong enough to protect her,' he thought adopting a slightly lowered stance with the Yukihira raised up to be level with his shoulder pointing unwaveringly towards his opponent.

"Both contestants. Get ready. 3..2..1.. BEGIN!"

In an instant Cecilia raised her long sniper rifle and fired whilst exclaiming "Now! Dance to the tune Cecilia Alcott and Blue Tears play!"

Ichika strafed left and right avoiding the shots from the rifle barely, 'Dammit, I can barely keep up with it, this is nothing like that exam a couple of weeks ago!' Ichika thought as the final burst hit his shield, 'I can't just keep defending like this I need to attack!' Weaving left and right Ichika started to form a plan of attack, just then Cecilia launched the automated turrets from her IS whilst mocking "I'm impressed that you've managed to hold out this long, but it's all over now!"

As the first of the turrets hit Ichika's shield he was engulfed in smoke and light. Coughing and peering through the smoke he heard an automated voice say:

" _Start up sequence and initialization complete. First shift engaged."_

'Alright,' he thought 'It's now my turn!'

In an instant, almost faster than the eye could see, Ichika had sliced though all of the turrets that Cecilia had launched at him, causing her to shout "It's not over yet!" With that she released a number of homing missiles towards Ichika. "Ignition Boost!" Ichika intercepted the missiles as if they were moving in slow motion and in an instant swung his sword down upon Cecilia's IS, causing it to setup up absolute barrier to avoid any damage to it's pilot. With the effect of reducing Cecilia's shield to zero.

 _HO-NK!_

"The winner of this match is Ichika Orimura! Both contestants return to your preparation areas." Yamada-sensei announced over the PA

In the control room Chifuyu let out a sigh of relief and with a small smile on her face quietly whispered "Well done Ichika."

Sometime later after enduring a party that his classmates had thrown him as well as the astonishing fact that Cecilia had come up to him and apologized for her behavior and complimented him, Ichika found himself flaked out on his bed staring up at the ceiling. A quiet knock on the door followed by an "Ichika can I come in?" from his sister caused him to lever himself from the bed.

"Of course Chifuyu-nee," Ichika answered back.

As she opened the door and entered the room Chifuyu said, "I just came by to congratulate you on your performance today and to see how you were, although after that party with those girls throwing yourselves at you, I imagine that you're feeling pretty pleased." An unwanted wave of jealousy coursed through Chifuyu's body when she said that.

"They make me tired in all honesty, I just don't know how to handle them," Ichika replied drawing a raised eyebrow from Chifuyu before continuing "Even with Houki I really don't know how to act around her, the only one I can be myself with is you, Chifuyu-nee," he smiled. Inwardly Chifuyu heart sky-rocketed with that declaration and smile 'God,' she thought 'It's hard not to fall for him when he says things like that.' Outwardly despite a faint tinge of pink on her cheeks she said "Just try not to lead them on and/or promise more than you're willing to give, I would hate to have to deal with that sort of chaos in the classroom or the dorm." Looking hard into his eyes as he assented, she appeared to find what she was looking for before saying "Alright get a good night's sleep Ichika."

"Goodnight nee-san."

 _CLICK!_

'Lead them on huh?' Ichika thought after his sister had left 'As if any of those girls could hold a candle to you.' Ichika started softly banging his head on the wall, he was falling for his sister and he knew it.

Back in her dorm room after locking the door, Chifuyu leaned up against it and slowly slid down to the floor with her head in her hands 'Crap I can't take it, if the next three years are going to be like this it's going to be hell on earth watching Ichika from a distance.' All of a sudden a violent jealous rage had descended on her, "Who do those girls think they are? Throwing themselves over him like that?" She snarled remembering what she saw earlier of the party in the dorm cafeteria.

 _WHACK!_

Chifuyu grimaced in pain as she realised she had punched the floor as hard as she could. Bending over on her knees tears started to roll down her cheeks as she finally admitted to herself 'I'm in love with him, I'll have to find out how he feels too, I can't go on like this it needs to be resolved one way or the other.'

One way or the other...


	4. ProtectorProtected (04-08 05:20:10)

**A/N:** So this is the third chapter of Protector/Protected. If any of you are wondering; yes I have altered events to suit my purpose, such as Ichika staying in a dorm room by himself, this was done so we can have more interaction scenes with Chifuyu. I'll probably look at moving them into the same room at some stage. Also the way Cecilia challenged Ichika was different as well as skipping over the rooftop scene with Houki, basically because I couldn't be bothered writing out those scenes in their entirety. Rest assured I will be keeping some of the harem hijinks for some comic relief but as I've stated previously this is about Ichika and Chifuyu. Now to explain Chifuyu's reactions, yes I may have taken them too far but not entirely without foundation, I'm thinking particularly of that scene in Germany where Laura asks Chifuyu how she's so strong, as well as the first intruder scene when fighting Rin/Ling and there are others. So for now enjoy the ride

Warning: There will stronger incest references upcoming maybe not in this chapter but... Also there might be some canon divergence with extra invented scenes used as plot devices. Once again feel free to review comment and offer criticisms/advice. Cheers Vandalbear.

I do not own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah...

 **Chapter 3**

"Oh my goddamn head," Chifuyu grumbled as she woke up still clothed and sprawled all over the top of her bed in the dorm. She looked up and surveyed the wreckage of her room. After her self admittance of feelings for Ichika last night she had gone on a bender drinking all of the remaining 10 beer cans that were in her fridge, before then passing out from a mixture of drunkenness, physical and emotional exhaustion. 'Maybe I should call Yamada-sensei and let her know that I won't be in today,' she thought before immediately dismissing the idea 'No that's not the right attitude to have seeing I brought this on myself, I'll have a shower and show up for work as usual.' As she proceeded to strip her clothes off, letting them fall where they were, she reached in and turned the shower on automatically to her preferred heat settings. Whilst waiting for the shower to heat up she looked down at her naked body and smiled at thought of possibly showing it to Ichika. Jerking herself away from those thoughts so roughly that she had to hold her throbbing head 'Now's not the time for that, I'll arrange it so we can have a private talk about all that at some stage.' When that would be though she couldn't consider because at that moment her attention was focused on recovering from her hangover.

Meanwhile Ichika was waking himself up, and dressing in a tracksuit, he went for a jog around the academy as a warm up for his routine that he would proceed with after. Walking down to the dojo on the bottom level of the club room building he saw that he wouldn't be alone as Houki Shinonono was there practicing with a Kendo sword -a shinai. "Hey there Houki," Ichika called out "Mind if I train with you?"

"Sure Ichika," Houki replied a smile and a faint blush adorning her face; "I've just started a hundred overhead swings." Ichika nodded, and, picking up a spare training shinai joined in with her. As they were swinging Houki was eyeing Ichika up and down 'Wow!' She thought, 'He's really grown strong since I last saw him.' Remembering the sparing sessions they'd had last week with a rueful grimace she asked him "How did you get so strong Ichika?"

"I'm not strong, at least not yet," he said with a sour smile on his face

"Huh don't kid me, no-one expected you to defeat Cecilia that easily!"

"No I'm weak, but in that weakness I have a desire and drive to protect someone, so I guess you could call that a kind of strength."

As Houki mulled over his words she had a desire to ask who that someone was, but didn't pursue it further. Ichika for his part had his thoughts turned to last night, and the revelation that came to him about his sister. 'So I love her, and more than a sister. But I cannot act on those feelings, for not only is it wrong but it would also destroy the progress we've made in the last couple of weeks. If it becomes too much to handle I'll have to talk to Chifuyu-nee but until then I'll keep it to myself.' He was pulled out of his musings by realising that Houki had asked him another question, "I'm sorry what?"

"I said boy you sure looked like you had fun yesterday having all those girls from our class throwing themselves at you!" Houki repeated, her anger rising.

"They were the one's doing it I didn't ask them to..."

"But you didn't stop them either did you?" Houki sneered getting angrier and angrier.

"Why are you so upset?" Ichika asked when suddenly her shinai came flying at his head. He ducked it smoothly and shouted "Hey!"

"Idiot Ichika!" was all he got in response from her retreating form.

After Ichika finished training and had a shower he got dressed, still thinking over what happened before he thought 'She got jealous didn't she? That's why she responded like that, but we're not dating so she doesn't really have the right to does she?' He had the distinct impression that that argument wouldn't fly, so he sighed knowing that he'd have to reconcile with Houki somehow, for she was his childhood friend after all.

As Ichika sat down in his seat for class Cecilia wandered over to him, "Ichika-dear, I was wondering if you'd like to train with me in the IS arena after school from now on. I'm sure that it would benefit us both..." She suggested as she moved in to hug his arm with her breasts sandwiching it either side.

"Ahhh..." Ichika replied heat rising in his face.

"You can't do that!" Houki suddenly snapped, "I am the one training with Ichika!"

"Oh my! But correct me if I'm wrong but you don't own your own personal IS? In fact only Ichika and I are the only ones with personal IS's." Cecilia smirked.

"That information is out of date!" came a Chinese accented voice from the door.

The speaker was a short thin athletic Chinese girl with her long brown hair done up into two thin pigtails.

"Ling?" Ichika asked with an expression of disbelief

"Yo Ichika how's it going?" Ling replied smiling revealing a fang in the top right corner of her mouth.

"Ichika-dear who is that? She seems to know you?" Cecilia asked looking at Ling as if she were a fly, with Houki behind Cecilia also bursting with curiosity and resentment.

"Ling's another childhood friend, I used to eat sweet and sour pork at her family's restaurant when we were younger." Ichika replied noticing the atmosphere in the room getting more and more tense.

"Hey Ichika, do you-" Ling was cutoff when the bell tolled for class to start.

 _WHACK!_

Chifuyu had just hit Ling over the head with a book and said "I believe that was the bell to start class." Favouring Ling with an icy cold glare. All protests and anger Ling had when she rounded on Chifuyu died in her throat when she saw who it was. Satisfying herself with an "I'll see you later Ichika." Ling hurried out of the door and back to her class.

'Freaking hell another one!' Chifuyu thought to herself, 'It's going to be hard to get Ichika alone at this rate, I'll have to organise an activity for us on the weekend that we can do together then we'll be able to talk.' Aloud she exclaimed "Get to you seats NOW!" directing her eyes towards both Cecilia and Houki. They did as directed heads down with a blush over both of their cheeks.

The lessons proceeded throughout the day with Ichika only paying mild attention as he had studied far enough ahead to know what all the classes were about, however he was careful not to show his mind wandering due to Chifuyu being in teacher mode. 'She really is impressive when she's like this' he thought, 'and that short grey skirt with the black tights.' Shaking his head realising that he was ogling Chifuyu's behind he put head down in an effort to concentrate on the lesson.

For her part Chifuyu was aware that someone was watching her and not the whiteboard where she was writing various mathematical theories. As she sneaked a peek behind she realised who it was 'It's Ichika! Hang on is he checking out my butt?' As she continued she noticed him quickly shake his head and apply himself to the class. 'Wait does this mean...' a small sliver of hope sprung up in Chifuyu's heart, and her entire body started feeling warm again. 'Now I definitely need to talk to him, hmm maybe we'll go clothes shopping this weekend, yes that's a good excuse!' Her resolve formed she went on about the lesson feeling a lot lighter and happier.

Maya Yamada looked over at her friend and colleague during break thinking, 'She's been a lot different lately, happier and not as cold as she usually is, I wonder what's going on.'

"Orimura-sensei," Maya asked "Is everything alright? You seem different lately." Chifuyu looked up, thought for a moment, and realising that she was humming quietly, stopped and said "Well I think you could say I'm happier now that Ichika is at ISA, I get to repair our family relationship a lot easier with him being here, and also I can protect him too." Chifuyu stopped short noticing a surprising snort had emerged from Maya. "What is it?" She asked.

"Well," Maya replied, "I was just thinking that after his recent performances maybe he doesn't need as much protection as you seem to think he does."

"Be that as it may it's a natural instinct for me considering he's the only family I have and that I almost lost him once." Chifuyu responded sourly referencing the 2nd Mondo Grosso incident.

Knowing that Chifuyu wouldn't budge on that issue Maya sighed and thought 'Well who can blame her I suppose after what happened.' Out loud she asked "Have you never considered settling down with a guy?"

Chifuyu gave a snort of derision and said, "Not only do I not have time for that, I've never met a man who can meet my expectations." Maya gave up knowing that although she cared about her friend she was also the most stubborn woman on the planet.

However Chifuyu's thoughts were headed in another direction, 'I'm lying, there is one guy who does and surpasses them, Ichika.' With that thought she quietly went about enjoying the delicious bento that Ichika had prepared for her and started humming again quietly. 'This Sunday, that's when it will all come to ahead. I'll confirm my own feelings and also my suspicions about Ichika's as well.' The scene in the classroom clearly etched in her mind.

'This Sunday...'

 _KNOCK KNOCK_

"Come in," called Ichika from inside the room, it was after class and after he had completed a very confusing training session with Houki, Cecilia and Ling all giving him advice at the same time Ichika was applying himself to the homework set for the day.

"Not interrupting am I?" Chifuyu asked as she walked in and closed the door.

"Nope Chifuyu-nee, I was just going over Yamada-sensei's information on the Raphael Revive that she handed out in class." Ichika replied noticing that his sister seemed to be swaying her hips as she walked towards the tea kettle to pour two cups. Blushing he tore himself away from the view and returned to the handout in front of him.

For her part Chifuyu was inwardly exalting the fact that her suspicions had proved correct and handed a cup of tea to Ichika and seating herself down at the table said, "So Ichika, I have a request."

"Yes nee-san, what is it?" Ichika replied, thanking whatever god there was that his voice was steady.

"I'd like you to accompany me this Sunday to do some shopping."

"Huh? Why me?"

"Because I value your opinion," Chifuyu went on to explain, "the other teacher's seem to only say what they think I want to hear when it comes to clothes, but I know you'll give your honest opinion."

"Ok I'd be glad to Chifuyu-nee, in fact it'll be a good chance to get out of ISA for a day."

'YES!' Chifuyu celebrated 'Perfect, now we'll be able to clear the air, maybe even confess...' With that Chifuyu stood up and turned around hiding the deep blush appearing on her white cheeks, and keeping her voice steady said "Good, I'll pick you up at the bus stop in front of the academy at 10:00 on the dot on Sunday. Good night Ichika."

"Good night nee-san."


	5. ProtectorProtected (04-09 02:34:20)

**A/n:** No author's notes this time just hang on with a white knuckle grip.

Cheers Vandalbear.

I don't own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah

 **Chapter 4**

'Well,' Ichika thought looking at himself in the mirror 'I guess that'll do.' He had just finished changing into some casual clothes. Originally he had considered just wearing his academy uniform but decided against it because he felt too uptight in it considering this was an outing into the city with his sister. 'I wonder what she'll wear?' He pondered whilst fiddling with the collar of his shirt 'Maybe her teaching attire, with that short skirt...' Shaking his head vigorously he needed to keep his cool today or else Chifuyu-nee would sense something amiss. Looking at the time (9:50) he left his room and started heading towards the bus stop at a brisk pace, for he knew that if there was one thing Chifuyu-nee hated and that was tardiness.

 _ONE HOUR EARLIER_

Chifuyu had just finished her breakfast and got undressed to get in the shower. Once again she looked down at her naked body and smiled. This time however she said out loud "I wonder if Ichika prefers big or small breasts?" For she would no longer lie to her own heart. 'Given the way he was checking me out I think I'm safe.' She absently minded trailed her fingers down her body, down to where the waves of warmth originated from whenever she thought of Ichika. "Oh Ichika," she moaned picturing him in his IS suit all the while rubbing herself at the junction between her legs. In a very quick time she climaxed, got in the shower, and proceeded to prepare herself for what she was certain was going to be a wonderful day.

"Good morning Ichika, did you sleep well?" Chifuyu asked him as he got in the black 4 door saloon that Chifuyu owned. "Yes thankyou Chifuyu-nee, slept right through." Ichika replied noticing that indeed Chifuyu was wearing her teacher's attire which included that skirt and tights combo that had aroused him the other day. Gulping he asked to divert attention "How about you nee-san, did you sleep well?"

"No not really, a bit of pent up stress," she admitted, seeing Ichika's concern she told him "Not to worry though I performed a lower body massage on myself this morning." Smirking as she turned to look out the window to watch for oncoming cars she thought to herself that, 'That's right I need to get Ichika to give me a full body massage sometime soon, preferably a naked one.' Another smirk.

After they had been driving for about 15 minutes Chifuyu pulled into a multilevel car park that was attached to a very large shopping centre. "Ok first stop I need a coffee," Chifuyu declared and with that she all but pulled Ichika into a nearby cafe. As they had their coffee they made small talk; it was usually about class, kendo, or IS training. But as they chatted Ichika thought that there was something else on Chifuyu-nee's mind. 'She seems almost nervous, but I mean that can't be she's Chifuyu Orimura, one of the most confident women I have ever met,' As he was brooding on this he gradually realised that the object of his thoughts had stopped talking and was staring intently at him.

"Sorry Chifuyu-nee, I got distracted," Ichika said sheepishly

"That's Ok." Chifuyu chuckled back "It was a fairly pointless conversation to start with."

"Hey is there something you're not telling me nee-san?"

"Like what?" Chifuyu's voice was suddenly guarded.

"I dunno I just felt there was something else you wanted to talk about, that's why I started zoning out because I was thinking on it."

To Ichika's amazement a blush appeared on Chifuyu's cheeks. 'God she looks beautiful.' He thought.

"There is something I want to talk about," Chifuyu responded looking around, "But not here we need to be somewhere out of the way without prying ears." Laughing at the concerned expression on Ichika's face, she said "Don't worry, it's nothing bad and it might turn out to be something amazing." Chifuyu visibly relaxed as she saw Ichika do the same and smiled and told him that it was time to start their shopping. As they passed through various shops and trying various outfits Ichika came to realise that he was there to serve a second purpose and that was to carry the bags. "That was your plan all along wasn't nee-san? To make me serve as baggage carrier!" Ichika accused. Now laughing outright Chifuyu replied "Actually no that was just a very happy coincidence." As Ichika grumbled along behind her Chifuyu thought she heard snippets of words such as: "grateful" and "only one I'd do this for." So Chifuyu started to sway her hips slightly as she walked and to her satisfaction the grumbling immediately stopped.

"Ok lunch time," Chifuyu called as Ichika collapsed into a nearby seat. After a decent lunch Chifuyu suddenly decided that she wanted to go for a walk in the nearby park. 'This is perfect, if there aren't many people nearby we'll be able to talk all we want,' She thought to herself as they headed towards it.

As luck would have it the park was relatively empty, and the atmosphere truly peaceful with cherry blossom trees gently swaying in the breeze. Immediately Chifuyu spied what she was looking for, at the corner of the park near the intersections of two streets and placed in the corner was a bench seat big enough for only two. 'Perfect she thought, we'll be able to talk through everything there.'

"OK here is good," Chifuyu stated when they reached the bench, aside from a couple people walking in the opposite direction and the passing motorists the park was largely empty. 'Ok,' Chifuyu thought, 'How do I go about this?' Waves of nervousness rolled over her, an emotion she had rarely felt in her life. Deciding that open and blunt was the best approach, she took a deep breath (which had the added bonus of sticking her chest out), turned to Ichika and said: "We need to talk."

"What is it nee-san? That thing you were talking about earlier?" Ichika frowned with furrowed brows.

"Yes," Chifuyu replied in a soft tone, unable to resist herself she reached out a hand and tried to smooth away Ichika's frown. However she was unsuccessful as the minute their touch met, both Ichika and Chifuyu felt a jolt of electricity. 'Wow!' Chifuyu thought 'Ok I've come this far, I need to follow this course wherever it leads.'

"I've been doing a lot of soul searching since our reconciliation, Ichika. And I've come to a firm conclusion about my emotions." Lip trembling with nerves and fear she was about to press on when Ichika replied:

"What is it nee-san? You know that now you can freely speak your mind with me." Ichika smiled softly.

Now having to deal with butterflies in the pit of her stomach as well, Chifuyu nodded and, looking Ichika squarely in the eye said:

"I Love You, Ichika... Not only as my brother but also as a man. Everyday I'm thinking of you in physical as well as emotional ways. I can't keep my feelings hidden any longer for you..." Chifuyu's voice trailed off into nothing as Ichika had stood up, and moving away from her turned his back.

'Oh God if you're there here my plea,' Ichika silently prayed 'What the hell do I do now?' One half of him wanted to acknowledge Chifuyu's confession with his own true feelings that were the same: He loves his sister as a woman, but the other half was his moral compass continually telling him that it was wrong.

Concerned over his continued silence Chifuyu had stood up and walked around him to face him front on, with her back to the road.

"I know it's a shock Ichika but I think your feelings might be the same as well... at least I hop-"

Chifuyu never got to finish that sentence as all of sudden Ichika's eyes widened in fear and he had started to push her violently to the side. 'What the hell?' She started to think when all of a sudden the white flash of a car out of control passed through the place where she had stood not a moment before and the place where Ichika NOW stood.

Ichika saw the white car suddenly start to swerve out of control and race towards the place where his beloved sister is. 'Oh shit it's going too fast for me to summon Byakushiki.' He thought in a micro second as his body was already in motion to push Chifuyu out of the way. As he saw the car coming towards him, time seemed to slow down, the squeels of the wheels, the fearful look of the driver as he desperately tried to wrest control of the car back, the glint of sunlight off the white plastic material of the bumper as it came in the direction of his legs.

'Aw Crap! This is going to hurt!' His last coherent thought was of course: 'Chifuyu-nee...' Before the world exploded in pain and then darkness.

 _ **SQUEEEEL!**_

 _ **CRAAASHH!**_

 _ **BAAAANG!**_

 _ **THUUUMP!**_

 _ **THUD Thud**_ _Thud thud..._

" _ **ICHIKAAAAA!**_ " Chifuyu screamed as she ran to the spot Ichika now was, which was at least 20 metres away laying up against the base of a Cherry Blossom tree. 'Oh god!' She thought as she saw his broken and twisted body, saying all the while "No no no no no no Ichika, Stay with me!" She fractionally calmed down when she saw that he was breathing, although erratically. Grabbing her cell phone out of her pocket she punched in a speed dial number that she had stored in there when she first learnt Ichika was coming to ISA.

"Hello ISA Emergency Medical Department? This is Chifuyu Orimura, student Ichika Orimura has been involved in a serious car accident, he is unconscious and breathing erratically, there is likely internal injuries, I need you to send a medical team and Uchigane healing IS to the location of this phone." Fighting with every shred od her being to keep her voice calm and professional, she knelt down by Ichika's side and, cradling his head in her lap, she knew that the healing properties of ISs were going to help save his life.

"I can't lose you now Ichika," she said as tears started freely falling down her cheeks, "I mean, you haven't even given me an answer yet." This weak attempt at a joke completely failed and Chifuyu started to cry in earnest as, she heard Ichika mumble something shocking "I love you Chifuyu... as a woman... couldn't say before... was scared."

"Ichika? Oy! Ichika Ichika..." But it was no use as he had fallen into unconsciousness once more

Chifuyu sat under the cherry blossom trees with Ichika's head in her lap, looking up at them whilst waiting for help to arrive.

"The trees are beautiful, Ichika."


	6. ProtectorProtected (04-11 02:11:36)

**A/n:** Well after the excitement of the previous chapter, I don't really know what to say. Just FYI the previous chapter's events took place instead of the class representative match between Ichika and Ling (and the unmanned IS) as I really didn't like that ep in the anime. Don't worry I'll be leaving in most of the other fights of the anime (Silverio Gospel, Laura, Squal, Madoka(maybe)). Once again any feedback is appreciated. Also this chapter will be significantly longer as I feel attention to medical details are important, forgive any inaccuracies. Cheers Vandalbear.

I don't own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah.

 **Chapter 5**

Chifuyu Orimura didn't know what to do, one of the few times in her life she was unsure. Waiting for the medical team to arrive had seemed like two hours had gone by, when in reality it had been closer to ten minutes. When they arrived, they immediately set about working on Ichika so that he could safely inserted into an Uchigane, which had then started to stabilize his vital signs. The Uchigane wouldn't heal all his injuries, but it would keep him alive until the doctors could work on him. As one of the team treated her for shock, she dimly noticed that a policeman was trying to get her version of what happened, she registered words like "child running onto the road," and "brakes failing." Absently aware that she was crying again the policeman was harried away by one of the team, who then escorted her into the back of the ambulance along with the Uchigane on a purpose built stretcher that contained her brother.

At the medical department of the ISA Ichika was first rushed into an X-Ray and CT/MRI room to find out everything that was wrong, shortly after that the head doctor of the ISA spoke to Chifuyu as Ichika was prepped for surgery. Getting her mind back into focus she listened to what the doctor had to say: "Okay Orimura-sensei, we've completed the tests and Orimura-kun has the following: A broken shin bone, dislocated knee, both thigh bones broken, several compressed fractures in his vertebrae, fortunately there seems to be no damage to his spinal chord. Several broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a skull fracture from where his head hit the windscreen, that has caused a slight bleeding on the brain so we're going to operate on that first. He has a punctured lung, and some damage to his kidneys and liver, we won't know the full extent until we can see it but it didn't look too bad, the bleeding on the brain is our top priority." Seeing that Orimura-sensei was almost at her limit the doctor added, "You saved his life by ordering that Uchigane."

"No."

"Pardon me?"

"I said you have it wrong, Ichika saved my life, he pushed me out of the way of the car," inexplicably getting furious Chifuyu took a deep breath and calmed herself down, "Thankyou doctor, please let me know when you know more, I'll be waiting outside the operating theatre."

The doctor was about to suggest she go back to her dorm or at least stay in the waiting room, but seeing the look in Orimura-sensei's eyes, wisely kept silent and simply nodded. Slumping onto the bench, Chifuyu pulled out her phone.

Maya Yamada was going through the next week's lessons. Although she had been through it once already she felt that it couldn't hurt to go over them again, after all the lesson plan had been set down by Orimura-sensei and although she counted Chifuyu as her friend, she was still Maya's superior. She reached over when she heard her phone chime with the notification of a text message, looking at it's content she gasped, gathered her things and hurried out the door rushing towards the medical department

"Ichika has been in a car accident, he's in a critical condition, come to the medical department Maya, please." Sender: Chifuyu Orimura-sensei.

Maya was almost in a state of panic as she hurried along. She couldn't believe it. Going back over the message in her mind she knew that Chifuyu was stressed, for one she had used Maya's first name without the honorific of -sensei, and secondly she had used the word "please", something she did rarely. With these thoughts in her mind she carried on towards the medical department. Opening a door she saw her friend sitting on a bench outside the doors to an operating theatre, 'This isn't good,' she thought, 'I've never seen Chifuyu with slumped shoulders before.' Going over to her she sat down next to Chifuyu and any words she had died on her tongue when she saw her friend's face. Chifuyu's eyes were red and swollen, obvious indications she had been crying.

"W-what happened?" Maya asked softly.

"You know how Ichika and I went shopping today?" Chifuyu replied in a voice drained of emotion.

"Yes."

"Well after we had lunch we went for a walk in a nearby park, as we were talking a child suddenly ran out on the road about 50 metres from us, right in front of an oncoming car. The car swerved to avoid the child and went out of control, it's brakes failing apparently. It came in our direction and was headed straight for me, I didn't even notice it as I had my back turned to it. Ichika pushed me out of the way, but at the same time placing himself in its path. It hit him and... and now we are here. He saved my life Maya." Tears had silently started dripping down Chifuyu's cheeks as she was telling the story. Maya wordlessly handed Chifuyu a handkerchief which was accepted as Chifuyu went on, "He's got a lot of broken bones, some internal injuries and some bleeding in the brain. This all happened almost an hour ago and he's now in surgery. That's all I know at this stage." With a sigh Chifuyu finished speaking and slumped her shoulders and looked at the door to the operating theatre once more. Maya placed an arm around her friend and said "If you need me for anything, just let me know."

"Yes. I won't be able to be at class tomorrow, could take it for me? Let the class know in the simplest of explanations what has happened. Also make sure that either Alcott or Shinonono don't leave class to come here, they can come after, but not during. Tell them that's an order from me, and that they'll be in detention if they ignore it, in fact expand that to the whole class given Ichika's popularity. About the class representative position, I'll leave it up to you, you can either reassign it to Alcott, or leave it open till Ichika is well again. Would you be able to do all that for me?"

"Of course!" Maya said before pausing and saying, "Maybe you should get some rest-"

"No! I'm sorry Yamada-sensei, I didn't mean to snap at you, but I'm not leaving here until the operation is finished and I know that Ichika is going to be ok."

"Ok Orimura-sensei, but please don't push yourself too hard." Maya said, hugging her friend briefly before getting up to leave. "Call me if you need anything else." Satisfied when Chifuyu responded with a nod, Maya made her way back to her dorm, thinking all the while that tomorrow might turn into chaos.

 _NINE HOURS LATER_

It was now just after 10:00pm, Chifuyu was still seated on the bench in front of the operating theatre having only moved from it twice to go to the nearby toilet. Maybe she was hungry she wasn't sure, and she didn't care. During the previous nine hours she had been recounting the happier moments of her day with Ichika as well as the previous three weeks ever since they had stopped treating each other like strangers. As she stifled a yawn the door in front of her opened...

Immediately Chifuyu was on her feet and looking at the surgeon who was coming out to see her. 'The surgeon looks out on her feet, I'll have to make sure that she and the whole medical team are rewarded for their efforts' Chifuyu mentally noted.

"Ah, Orimura-sensei," The surgeon said wiping the sweat off her brow with a clean towel, "At this stage Ichika is going to be ok. We do have concerns about infections but with proper antibiotic treatment, they won't be an issue."

"Thankyou." Chifuyu said heaving a great sigh of relief, and when the doctor saw that it was heartfelt, she smiled and said " We have set it up so that he'll be soon wheeled into a private room, we have placed him in an induced coma so-"

"Coma?" Chifuyu asked sharply, "Why?"

"Relax Orimura-sensei, it's a standard procedure when there has either been a serious head injury or major surgery, in Ichika's case, both. It's proven to help the body heal more rapidly and minimize the pain. When we're happy about his progress we will gradually bring him out of it." Continuing on the doctor said, "All his bones have been reset, and the Uchigane will help with their repair, one kidney was lacerated, but it was small and will heal on its own. The liver was bruised and had blood starting to swell around it, we released the blood and repaired it so that won't be a problem. The punctured lung was a small puncture and will heal on its own, again the Uchigane will help with that. As for the bleeding on the brain, we drained the blood and repaired a couple of very small arteries with keyhole surgery, as his brainwaves are completely normal according to the EEG machine we don't feel there is any chance of brain damage. Ichika's quite lucky a less healthier person might not have survived that, his stamina levels are amazing, you must have trained him well Orimura-sensei."

"No I didn't in fact, in recent years Ichika did all his own training." Chifuyu said proudly, happier now that Ichika appeared to be out of the woods. "Ah," the surgeon said, "Well if you would like to follow me I'll take you to the room where we'll be placing Ichika."

Chifuyu nodded and started to follow the surgeon.

The room was white with soft green curtains either side of a window overlooking a lawn area. There was a television and computer setup in one corner, an alcove attached to the had a shower and toilet facilities. However all of this went largely unnoticed by Chifuyu as all her attention was focused on her brother in the Uchigane IS laying on the bed. Various small plastic tubes emerged from Ichika at the site of the surgery scars, to help drain excess blood and fluids, the surgeon had said. One arm was crossed across his body, keeping the collarbone from moving whilst both legs were enclosed in a tube with metal rings help keeping the bones secure whilst they repaired themselves. Bandages wrapped around his head and stomach while there was an IV line coming from the vein of his free arm. "Oh my poor Ichika," Chifuyu whispered as she pulled up a chair next to the bed, sat on it and, resting her head on the bed promptly fell asleep.

There was darkness, and then there was light. A white mist surrounded Ichika as he stood on a surface of glittering water. A lone cherry blossom tree stood to the right in front of him, it's limbs stripped of petals as if in the middle of winter.

"Do you want power?" A young girl asked. She had the appearance of an 8 or 9 year old, with long straight hair. She was wearing a summer dress and straw hat.

"Do you want power?" She repeated.

"Yes." Ichika replied.

"Why?"

"So I can protect someone."

The girl thought for a moment and said with a smile in her voice: "She is very lucky. Then I will give you power."

All of a sudden the girl vanished and in her place standing in front of Ichika was a figure in an IS suit. It closely resembled Chifuyu in the original shiroshiki IS. So much so in fact that Ichika started to say "Chifuyu-nee?"

"Do you want power?" the figure asked him

"Yes." He replied once more.

The figure instantly shot out it's hand and gripped Ichika by the throat and started lifting him off the ground. It's features turned black and it's lips turned purple.

"I may kill you one day." It said before vanishing, and there was darkness once more.

Chifuyu gradually opened her eyes noticing that daylight was shining through the window of the room, 'So I slept through the night' she thought, looking over at Ichika. 'Good his breathing seems perfectly normal,' eyeing the heart rate monitor, 'No problems there either, guess I'm just waiting for him to wake up.'

"Good morning Orimura-sensei." This was from one of the medical team that had treated Ichika at the park, evidently she was doing the morning checkups with the patients. "Good morning," Chifuyu replied, "How is Ichika looking?"

" Hmmm well his vitals are fine, so is his temperature, which is a good indication that there isn't any infection, -yet." She added a qualifier. "Lets have a look at his surgery scars, and change the bandages"

"Do you need me to leave?" Chifuyu asked, silently praying that she would be allowed to stay.

"No you can stay, but I'd like you to eat something, I doubt you've had anything since—What The Hell Is This?" The orderly practically shouted as she had just finished unwrapping the surgery bandage on Ichika's stomach.

"What? What's wrong?" Chifuyu asked half terrified.

"The wound from the surgery... It's almost completely healed." The orderly said quickly dialling a number and saying, "Doctor, I need you to come to Ichika Orimura's room as soon as you can, thankyou."

Looking over Ichika, Chifuyu saw that the orderly was right, the wound had almost knitted together completely, only leaving a thin scar and the staples which had been holding the skin together, almost all of them had dropped out.

Upon seeing Ichika's stomach the surgeon pursed her lips, and said: "Well let's have a look at Ichika's scalp. After unwrapping the bandage covering Ichika's head, they could see the same thing had happened, the small incision from the keyhole surgery had completely healed and the bruising where his skull had fractured had started to fade.

"I can't believe it, it's almost unprecedented, even with an Uchigane helping it usually takes 3-5 days to see this sort of progress." The surgeon said.

"What do you think could have caused it," Chifuyu asked, elated that Ichika was doing so well.

"The only possible explanation is his sync ratio with the IS, Ichika must have an unusually high ratio, maybe similar to yours. It wouldn't be surprising for that matter when you think about it. Given that you are brother and sister."

"Will you be able to bring him out of the coma now then?" Chifuyu asked hopefully.

"Hmmm I'd like to run another set of scans on him to see the extent of his healing, there is also the pain management side to think about as well. We'll see what tests say and then think about it. I'll let you know when we've decided. But as for you, Orimura-sensei, I want you to eat some food and then get some proper bed-rest, after you've had a few hours sleep we'll know by then what we are going to do. Deal?" The surgeon asked with a penetrating gaze.

Chifuyu started to get hostile as the surgeon finished but then quickly caught herself, remembering the surgeon's sweat drenched clothes and exhausted face from last night. 'She had helped save Ichika's life, there's nothing I can do to repay that.' Nodding once Chifuyu responded with "Very well, I'll be back in four hours. Oh, and doctor?"

"Yes?"

"Thankyou."

As Chifuyu walked to the cafeteria she became aware of just how tired and hungry she was. Sighing she pulled out her phone and sent a message once more:

"Yamada-sensei, Ichika will be fine, the surgery was an outstanding success, I will know more in four hours, you can let the class know of the progress. Thankyou for last night." Sender: Chifuyu Orimura-sensei.

 **A/N:** So decided to split this chapter into two, it'd be too long for my liking. Don't worry will upload the next in a day or so. Cheers Vandalbear.


	7. ProtectorProtected (04-12 06:05:33)

**A/n:** So the next part of the accident "arc" I'd guess you call it.

A quick word on Ling's/Rin's name: in the anime it was Rin Fan, but in the wiki she is listed as Ling Huang, with Rin being a pet name. So I decided to go with Ling Huang just from personal preference.

Cheers Vandalbear

I don't own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah...

 **Chapter 6**

 _A Military Institute in Germany_

Lieutenant Clarissa Harfouch looked at her Commander and friend Laura Bodewig, thinking that the Black Rabbit Unit would be better if the Commander stayed, outwardly she said, "Are you sure you want to go to Japan, Commander? I know that Instructor Orimura is there but the Unit needs you here."

Commander Bodewig looked at her XO and replied, "Clarissa, I am only going there to convince Instructor Orimura to return, failing that I wish to get revenge on this Ichika Orimura. How dare he take the Instructor away from us."

The lieutenant thought that it might be natural considering they were brother and sister, but she wasn't sure as she, Laura and all the members of the Black Rabbits were genetically engineered test tube babies with no parents or siblings. Opening her mouth to ask the Commander if she could pick up some anime and manga titles for her while she was over there, a corporal entered the Commander's office, and, with a perfunctory salute stated, "Ma'am, a report has come from one of our assets in Japan. It directly concerns the Instructor and her brother."

"Give me that," Laura ordered. Scanning the document she said, "Well, there's a change of plans. Apparently Ichika Orimura has saved the life of the Instructor by pushing her out of the way of an oncoming car. He has been seriously injured. Hmmm such an act of loyalty to the Instructor is to be commended. Maybe I'll look to bring both of them back to Germany."

 _The Infinite Stratos Academy, Japan_

Maya Yamada was uneasy walking into the classroom as the bell tolled to begin lessons for the day. On her way over here she heard a few girls gossiping about the location of Ichika; 'So they noticed that he didn't come back to the dorm last night. Great, it's going to be chaos like I feared.' Walking into the room she overheard one girl, Honne-san, the one with the ridiculously long sleeves ask: "Hey, hey, where's Orimu? Does anyone know? Houki?"

"No I haven't seen him," Houki replied with a frown, "He wasn't in the dojo training this morning, in fact I haven't seen him since he went shopping with Orimura-sensei yesterday."

'Ok seems like an up front approach will be the best option to get this over and done with straight away,' Maya considered, clearing her throat she said "Good morning everyone. Before we begin today I have some rather unfortunate news," steeling herself for the uproar sure to follow she pressed onwards: "At approximately 1:30 yesterday afternoon student Ichika Orimura was involved in a serious car accident." (Gasps could be heard) "It appears he saved Orimura-sensei by pushing her out of the way of an out of control car. He suffered significant injuries and was in surgery last night. At the moment that's all we know."

There was deafening silence for two seconds as all the girls looked stunned with their mouths open, and then pandemonium erupted. Some girls were trying to ask Maya for more information that she didn't have, other girls had started to cry, meanwhile both Houki and Cecilia had stood up and were walking towards the door. 'Just as Chifuyu predicted,' Maya thought, 'She's as astute as ever.' Raising her voice for the first time the class had heard it she ordered "Everyone Be Silent! Shinonono-san and Alcott-san Back To Your Seats!" Houki and Cecilia froze in mid-stride, "Orimura-sensei has directed that anyone skipping class to see Orimura-kun will be put in detention for an indefinite period of time. She has said that you may visit him after class, but Not During!"

Stunned by their normally quiet and kind teacher's forceful approach the two girls bowed their head's and meekly went back to their seats. Sensing that she had the class under control she offered them a bit of consolation by gently saying, "The medical team was on hand within minutes including an Uchigane IS specially designed for healing purposes, so everything that can be done, is being done. As soon as we know more, we'll let you know." As she started writing on the whiteboard Maya thought ruefully, 'I doubt they'll actually remember any of the information from class today.'

After about an hour into the class, Maya's phone chimed with the notification of a text message from Chifuyu. It read: "Yamada-sensei, Ichika will be fine, the surgery was an outstanding success, I will know more in four hours, you can let the class know of the progress. Thankyou for last night." After telling the class the news, there was a unison sigh of relief and the girls started looking happier (although still worried) and being more attentive.

Chifuyu's sleep was troubled, after having a quick breakfast as directed by the surgeon in charge of Ichika, she had gone back to her room and, after setting her alarm clock for three and a half hours, went to bed. Her dreams were stretching back years to the time of the 2nd Mondo Grosso. In some dreams she went on to win the tournament only to be informed that Ichika had been killed, in another one she had got the location of Ichika, but arrived too late to save him, and in yet others the kidnapping had never happened at all and a beaming Ichika had welcomed her home with the title in hand...

 _BARP! BARP! BARP! BARP!_

Groggily reaching out a hand to shut off the alarm clock, Chifuyu got up out of bed and headed into the shower. Unlike normal she wasted no time in the shower, or in getting ready as all of her thoughts were directed at getting to the medical department as soon as possible. Fortunately it was just after lunch, so there were no students in the halls of the ISA. 'I'm sure by now, given class interactions during break and lunch, that the news has probably gone round all of the first years, if not the 2nd and 3rd years as well.' Chifuyu considered with a sigh. 'Well, if there are too many visitors after school we'll just have to limit the number seeing him at a time.' Believing in Yamada-sensei's ability to control the class, Chifuyu was pleased to be proven correct when she saw there were no students in the waiting room of the medical department or in Ichika's room as well.

Ichika, however, was there, and despite the myriad of tubes and monitors, looked as if he was only sleeping. The bandage around his stomach had been removed showing only the scar from the surgery, the final staples had been either been removed or fallen out on their own. The bandage around his head had also been removed and the bruising had faded even more, leading Chifuyu to believe that his bones were probably also healing at an accelerated pace.

"Ah, Orimura-sensei, I had guessed you would be back right on four hours." The surgeon said, entering the room with a smile. Her smile widening when Chifuyu merely responded with a grunt, her eyes never leaving Ichika. The surgeon continued, "Well, I have some good news for you. As you can see he is still healing at an accelerated pace, and after seeing the results of the scans we have decided to bring him out of the induced coma." Chifuyu looked up and opened her mouth, but was stopped from speaking by the surgeon holding her hand up. "Even though we will be discontinuing the general anesthesia, it will still take some time for him to wake up, and when he does he will be probably extremely groggy and incoherent until he wakes up fully. There is also the pain management side to think about, we will start off by administering a low dosage of morphine to him once he wakes up, but after talking with him about how he feels we will either change to a lighter medication of a stronger one depending. Alright?"

Chifuyu agreed and the surgeon called in the anesthetist to remove the supply of drugs and replace it with a saline solution to help flush his system. After they had finished they bade Chifuyu goodbye and left her alone with him.

"Ah Ichicka," Chifuyu said, reaching out a hand to stroke his cheek, "You really gave me a scare, you better take responsibility for that you know." Smiling the biggest smile she had in some time, Chifuyu sat back down on the seat and proceeded to wait for Ichika to wake up.

Dimly she was aware of voices out in the corridor. 'Ah,' Chifuyu thought, 'Class must be finished for the day and they have come to see him. I better greet them and put them in a respectful manner.' Opening the door to see Houki Shinonono, Cecilia Alcott and Ling Huang, bickering over who was going in first, Chifuyu cleared her throat and said "If that's how you are going to behave, then I will not permit you to enter. Ichika is recovering from major surgery and does not need the chaos you girls bring. If you can control yourselves you can visit with him, but any more arguments and you'll be in detention faster than you can blink and banned from using ISs until I believe you deserve it. Do I make myself clear?" As Chifuyu had started to speak, the girls had fallen silent, and by the time she had finished, they had their heads bowed and their faces flushed with shame. "I apologize." Houki said, quickly followed by the other girls.

"Good, you may enter," seeing the girls had learnt their lesson she said, "I'll have the orderly bring two more chairs, and will wait outside until you have finished. Be aware that at this time Ichika has just been taken off the anesthesia, and is still unconscious, we are just waiting for him to wake up naturally, although we don't know when that will be."

As the three girls entered the room they saw Ichika lying on the bed in the Uchigane. "Oh my god," the three of them almost said as one. Seeing Ichika on the bed with tubes and the metal encasing his legs made them realise for the first time how serious it was. "I can't believe it," Cecilia said, as Houki chimed in with, "Wow, you know I've just realised that Ichika's a hero, doing what he did."

"Yeah," Ling agreed, "He saved Orimura-sensei without a thought of his own safety, not everyone can do that."

"I think that we should throw Ichika a party when he gets better," Cecilia suggested.

"Good Idea," Houki said before adding, "But you aren't doing any of the cooking for it though.." "What?" Cecilia protested as the other two girls started laughing.

Outside Chifuyu was listening to their conversation, and although she was incredibly jealous of the way the girls acted toward Ichika, like he belonged to them, she was pleased nonetheless by their idea of a party. 'A party? Well that's fine, it's the least he deserves, maybe I can think of something personal to repay him with too.' Chifuyu mused. Looking up the corridor she saw more of Ichika's classmates arriving, and after giving them a similar speech to the one she had given the others, got them to swap places.

This happened several more times throughout the afternoon, and each time it did Chifuyu's jealousy got a little more intense. 'However I will keep it under tight control,' she thought remembering what she'd done after the class representative party, 'No more nights or mornings like that for awhile,' she resolved, determined to only put Ichika's full recovery as her priority. A nagging thought about their conversation in the park raised its head and Ichika's mumbled words just after the accident. 'We can discuss that later,' she thought just as the last group left finally leaving her alone with Ichika again.

There was darkness and then there was light. 'Everything's white,' Ichika thought, 'Ah that's a white ceiling, why am I lying down?' he wondered as all of a sudden a blurry face appeared over him its head surrounded by what seemed to be an halo of light, obviously obscuring the light fixture in the ceiling, the figure seemed to be saying something to him, but he couldn't quite make out the words.

"An angel." Ichika declared before drifting back into sleep once more.

"Ichika! Ichika!" Chifuyu said as she saw Ichika's eyes open. But after he said an angel and went back to sleep, she calmed down and pressed the alert button so that the surgeon could be summoned.

"So, he's woken up?" The surgeon asked after Chifuyu reported that Ichika had opened his eyes and then gone back to sleep. At Chifuyu's nod, she then said, "Well, it won't be too long before he wakes up properly then," As the surgeon was speaking a groan could be heard from the bed.

"Ooh~," Ichika said "My head hurts. Huh? Why am I in a bed? Why am I in an IS and what are all these tubes?"

"Ichika-" Chifuyu started before being interrupted the surgeon.

"You were in a car accident," thinking, the surgeon then asked "What's the last thing you remember?"

Struggling to think, Ichika replied, "I was shopping with Chif- Orimura-sensei, when she suggested we get lunch, that's the last thing I remember. " Ichika frowned thinking that in the back of his mind there _was_ something else, but he couldn't recall what it was.

After explaining what had happened to Ichika, the surgeon and Chifuyu left the room to talk.

"Retrograde amnesia." The surgeon decided. "It's quite common after major traumas, a period of time before the injuries to the body can sometimes be forgotten. We are not sure what causes it but we think it might be the brains way of coping with the physical or mental stress of the situation."

"I see." Chifuyu said in flat tone, "When will he recover those memories?"

"We don't know it could be hours, days, months. Every case is different, there are even cases where the memories don't come back. We just don't know."

"I see," again in that flat tone.

"Was there something that you wanted him to remember?"

"N-not really," Chifuyu replied, turning around to hide the blush that appeared on her cheeks. "I was just concerned for him."

"Of course." Believing her the surgeon said "Well we'd better finish the check up so that he can either stay awake or fall alseep naturally, its best to get his body's rhythm's back to normal as soon as possible. Any chance of me convincing you to eat and rest as well?"

"I promise to, once he falls asleep."

"Very well."

'So he doesn't remember the park at all,' Chifuyu considered later on that night 'But he knows that I have something to talk to him about,' (as she has told him in the coffee shop), 'Ah well it can wait until he's better. I'm just so glad he's going to be ok.'


	8. ProtectorProtected (04-15 01:00:09)

**A/n:** So the next chapter, hope you enjoy.

Cheers Vandalbear

I don't own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah...

 **Chapter Seven**

 _Mansion Compound, France_

"Do you understand? The future of the company is dependent on the success of your mission."

"Yes, Father." A young blonde girl answered.

"You do not want the consequences, should you fail. You must obtain the data from the "special case" this Ichika Orimura using any means necessary. I don't care if you seduce him and sleep with him, just get his data!"

With that the young girl's father turned and left the room.

"You mustn't think too harshly of you father, Miss Charlotte." A maid said offering Charlotte Dunois a cup of tea, "He's just going through a rough patch."

"It's okay." Charlotte replied in a small voice. 'I understand who I am.'

 _The Infinite Stratos Academy, Japan_

"So Orimura, how are you feeling?" The surgeon asked Ichika the next morning. "Any pain anywhere?"

"Not really, most of the pain went away during the night," Ichika said as he thought some more, "My legs are really itchy though, when can I get them out of these metal tubes?"

"Well your leg bones have fully healed, however they may still be a little weak. How about this? We'll remove them but you must limit the time you spend walking, we want you to use a wheelchair for most of the rest of this week, of course this means no IS training at all. Agreed?"

"Yes," Thinking Ichika asked "What about my memories? I still can't remember what happened?" There was still that prickling in the back of his head that told him something important had happened, but he was still drawing a blank.

"As I said to Orimura-sensei, we just don't know when they'll return, if at all. Despite what people believe it's not necessarily something you can force, you just have to let them return naturally."

"Okay."

"Ah Orimura-sensei, we were just discussing the possibility of removing the bone-supports from Orimura-kun's legs, are you ok with that?" The surgeon asked as Chifuyu entered the room.

Looking hard at Ichika, Chifuyu nodded and said, "So long as you don't over-exert yourself Orimura."

"I promise Chif-, Orimura-sensei."

"Good." Chifuyu said as the first bell chimed. "Well I have to get to class, I will drop by after school to check up on you, also the police want to talk to you at some stage about what happened. As your guardian I will be present to help considering you can't remember what happened." This last statement said with an air of disappointment that had Ichika scratching his head.

"Ok Orimura-sensei, I'll see you later."

Chifuyu nodded as she left the room. On her way to class she was considering how well Ichika was doing when she happened to overhear a snippet of conversation from two nurses gossiping.

"Hey, hey so is it true? About Orimura-kun's... you know." One asked the other.

"About his manhood? Yeah it's true alright, when I was inserting the catheter after the operation I saw that it was quite a bit larger than normal. Ah, I wish I was his girlfriend, imagine having that monster inside of you." Giggling the nurses walked away to conduct the rest of their rounds.

Chifuyu had slowed after hearing that, a deep blush appearing on her face. Despite being an idol to the world, she had very limited experience with sexual activity, in fact she was still a virgin. Her words to Yamada-sensei were not a lie, she just hadn't found the right man. Although she was now sure that Ichika was that man (despite being her brother), and once more intense waves of warmth had sprouted from her nether regions after listening to that conversation. 'However now's not the time for that, I have a class to teach.' Ruthlessly quashing those thoughts she went on her way to the classroom and carried out her duties for the day.

As Chifuyu entered the room after class she noticed that Ichika wasn't there. Thinking that he was probably having the bone-supports removed she sat in one of the chairs and proceeded to wait for him to return. She didn't have long to wait as Ichika wheeled himself into the room in a wheelchair soon after she sat down.

"Hi Ichika," Chifuyu said her gaze lingering on his groin for an instant before looking up into his face, a light dusting of pink on her cheeks, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine Chifuyu-nee, now that the supports are removed my legs don't feel as itchy. Though I wish I didn't have to use the wheelchair, I reckon I could walk about just fine."

"I asked you not to over-exert yourself, remember? In fact you promised!" Chifuyu responded her voice slightly hardening.

"I'm sorry nee-san," Ichika said meekly bowing his head.

"It's okay, I'm just so very worried for you, after all I almost lost you." Chifuyu said shocking Ichika when he saw unshed tears in her eyes. As Ichika opened his arms, she hugged him back and started to cry into his shoulder.

Ichika held Chifuyu tightly as she continued to quietly sob into his shoulder, releasing all the stress that had built up over the last few days. "I'm sorry Chifuyu-nee, I promise not to leave you, ever. I will be always there for you."

"Ichika you idiot," Chifuyu said with a smile in her voice, "You should know that you can't see what's going to happen in the future." Looking into her brother's face she continued, "I'll hold you to that promise though," Giving Ichika the happiest smile he had seen on her face in some time. 'She still looks so beautiful,' he thought as he returned the smile and they both started to laugh.

"Hello Ichika, how are you?"

"How are you feeling Ichika-dear?"

"Yo Ichika, how's it going?"

Houki, Cecilia and Ling had arrived some time later, and, after saying goodbye to Ichika as well as giving a meaningful glare to the girls, Chifuyu had left them alone and headed back to the dorm.

"I'm okay guys, apparently the Uchigane did wonders healing my injuries, I'm just lucky Chifuyu-nee thought to call for one." Ichika said suddenly feeling exhausted after that emotional outpouring with Chifuyu an hour or so before.

"I'd say Orimura-sensei is the lucky one," Houki said before Ling added: "Yeah, after all you did save her life."

"You're so brave," Cecilia chimed in with for good measure.

"You say that but it's all news to me, I can't remember it at all, it's like it happened to someone else." Ichika told them.

"So when do you think they'll let you out of here, Ichika?" Ling asked with the other two nodding in the background.

"The doc reckons probably tomorrow, she says she'll run some final tests on me in the morning but it should be ok to go back to the dorms tomorrow afternoon." Ichika replied cocking his head in confusion when the girls started exchanging meaningful looks with each other. "What's going on?" He asked them.

"Nothing!" they replied as one.

Back in her room Chifuyu was busy reading. She had various cookbooks open at what she knew to be Ichika's favourite dishes, chicken karaage, sweet and sour pork and curry rice. 'Hmmm which one to cook for him,' she pondered before settling on curry rice as, given her cooking skills, it was the only one she could make tasty enough in time to welcome Ichika back. "Yep, that'll work," she decided before looking over at her bed and the gold and silver wrapped present that was sitting on it, tied up with a neat bow. 'I may not be girly like the others, but I do know Ichika, I'm sure he'll appreciate these,' Chifuyu thought with a small smile. The surgeon had told her that they'll release him tomorrow, so she intended to invite him over to her room after the dorm party, which she was going to keep a very close eye on of course. "So I'm jealous," she said to herself "However the fact is he's still recovering, so I don't want him tired out or injured by their shenanigans."

"Ah so everyone, we are here to welcome back and celebrate the man of the hour. The Hero who saved Orimura-sensei. Ichika Orimura!" Houki announced at the dorm party in the cafeteria the next afternoon. Having won a round of rock-paper-scissors over Cecilia and Ling, Houki was the MC for the party and as such was standing next to Ichika who was looking slightly overawed. "So can you all raise your glasses to the air, aaaand Cheers!"

"Cheers!" Everyone replied before sitting down to enjoy the party that they had prepared for Ichika.

Chifuyu was standing off to one side and entered a message into her cell: "Ichika, after the party could you stop by my room? I have something to give you, also please don't eat too much." Sender: Chifuyu Orimura-sensei.

Checking his phone and slightly jumping in surprise, Ichika looked over to where Chifuyu was and, with a smile on his face, nodded. Chifuyu gave a brief smile before asking Yamada-sensei to watch over the party and headed back to her room. Ichika's eyes on her all the way. Feeling his body responding to watching Chifuyu's retreating form, Ichika took a deep breath to calm himself and paid attention to the girls, one of which was trying to feed Ichika a pocky stick. Immediately of course she was hounded by the other girls claiming she was trying to get ahead of them. After Yamada-sensei had calmed them down, the party proceeded along merrily for a good two hours.

 _KNOCK KNOCK!_

"Come in!" Chifuyu called knowing it would be Ichika, as she had heard the creak of the wheelchair rims just before the knock.

"Pardon the intrusion," Ichika said before stopping to openly stare around Chifuyu's room. Looking at his reaction Chifuyu openly chuckled and said, "What are you looking at Ichika, it's just a room."

"It might be just a room but it's far and away better than mine." Ichika said "This is almost a modern apartment!"

"Well we are teachers after all, you can't expect us to live like the students do." Chifuyu said thinking all the while 'What I wouldn't give to have him move in here, to share my bed..." Startling herself out of her thoughts she said, "Please sit at the table, whilst I get changed."

Bewildered Ichika did as he was bade, noticing that there was a delicious smell coming from the kitchenette.

"I'm ready, thanks for waiting," Chifuyu said stepping out of the walk-in wardrobe. She was dressed in a yukata of soft dark blue and light green colours with her hair hanging free released from its usual ponytail. Laughing as she noticed Ichika's expression, she said, "You can close your mouth you know."

"What's this about Chifuyu-nee?" He asked as he did as directed.

"It's my way of thanking you for saving my life. I know you don't remember it at the moment, but nonetheless I wanted to do this for you." Chifuyu responded as she went to the bed and picked up the present she had wrapped. "Here, please accept this."

"I will. Thankyou Chifuyu-nee, may I open it now?"

"Mmm please do," Chifuyu answered looking down whilst twiddling her thumbs together.

Ichika unwrapped the gift, taking care not to destroy the wrapping paper as it was obvious she had put a lot of effort into wrapping it; and there on his lap was a gold-embossed translated copy of Sun Tzu's "Art of War." "Awesome," he muttered turning the cover and stopped, looking at Chifuyu's name written in the top left corner.

"It was given to me by a military colonel when I was in my third year of high school, it gave me great advice on tactics when using the IS." Chifuyu explained when she saw Ichika's expression, continuing she went on, "As it helped me, I wish that it will also help you, not only in battle but also in life. Please accept it."

"Of course I will, something so important to you is important to me as well!" Ichika replied. Smiling a grateful smile Chifuyu said, "That's not all, I've also prepared dinner for us as well."

Now Ichika was really stunned, he couldn't believe it. Eagerly looking forward to it he said "I'm amazed, Chifuyu-nee, I didn't know you could cook."

"I just learned it." Chifuyu admitted, "Just as you've always cooked me delicious meals, I wanted to do the same for you." She said in a small voice whilst bring over the pot from the stove. "Ta dah! Pork cutlet curry rice! I know its one of your favourites."

'Oh man I can't wait to try this,' he thought as he said, "Thanks for the meal."

Sometime later Ichika was leaning back in his wheelchair rubbing his full stomach. "That was amazing nee-san. But it makes me a little sad though."

"Huh? How so?" Chifuyu asked worriedly.

"Well you're able to cook for yourself, so that means I'm out of a job."

Laughing out loud Chifuyu happily said, "Don't worry you'll always be my number one cook!"

"Don't sound so pleased saying that," Ichika bantered back.

They passed a pleasurable evening teasing each other till it was time to leave.

"Thank you for having me nee-san, I really enjoyed myself," Ichika said smiling up at Chifuyu.

Chifuyu's heart skipped a beat when he said that, and replied "Anytime Ichika, take care of yourself. Sleep well."

Back in his dorm room for the first time since the accident, Ichika suddenly gripped his head as a stabbing pain rushed through it. Images and words and feelings came shooting through his head. The events of the accident and the moments before it became as clear as day to him.

'She Loves Me.' He thought, 'and I?'


	9. ProtectorProtected (04-18 01:17:43)

**A/n:** What will Ichika do?

How will the arrival of two transfer students complicate things?

Find out next

Warning: Mild incest lemon

Cheers Vandalbear

I don't own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah…

 **Chapter Eight**

 _The Gotanda House_

"So, what's it like surrounded by all those cute girls?" Dan Gotanda asked Ichika as they played a videogame in the living room of the Gotanda's. Chifuyu had suggested to Ichika that he spend the weekend at his friend's house to help him recover. Ichika was more than happy to agree as it got him away from Chifuyu. He found that he could barely look her in the eyes after all the memories had come flooding back a couple of nights ago.

"It's better now that Ling is there as well, now I know more people there."

"Ling, eh?"

At that moment Dan's sister, Ran, had suddenly entered the room although after turning red at the sight of Ichika, and giving an angry glare at her brother, she hurried out.

"I wonder what that was all about?" Ichika wondered, as Dan started shaking his head.

"I bet you act like this at school too. Those poor girls, I feel sorry for Ling."

"Huh?" a perplexed Ichika said, as another thought entered his head. "Hey Dan can I ask you a hypothetical question?" As Dan nodded curious, Ichika went on: "What if there's this girl you know likes you, but she doesn't know you know, what would you do?"

Dan frowned for a moment in thought and then asked, "I guess it depends. Do I like this girl?"

Ichika thought, "Yeah but if you got together the relationship would be looked down upon by everyone."

"Hmm a tough one, however, I'd go with my heart. If I love her and she loves me, isn't that all that matters?" adding he asked, "What brought this up?"

Ichika was deep in thought, but at the last question he said hurriedly, "N-nothing just thinking of a show I watched the other night. Heh heh."

Dan seemed to buy this and they spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and hanging out.

 _Infinite Stratos Academy_

Chifuyu was tossing and turning in her sleep, her dreams like they had been since the accident were full of Ichika...

" _I'm home." Chifuyu said as she opened the door._

" _Welcome home, Chifu." Ichika answered coming out of the kitchen. Chifuyu flashed him a smile and, wrapping her arms around him, gave Ichika a light kiss on lips. She still wasn't used to the fact that Ichika had not only given her a nickname but also dropped any honorific in private since they had started dating._

" _What would you like first: dinner, a bath, or a massage?" Ichika asked with a smile, knowing what her answer would be. Unable to resist Chifuyu responded with the expected "I think a full body massage," also smiling, well aware of what it would lead to. Stripping off her teacher's clothes, she let them fall where they were, quickly followed by her black lace bra and panties. Ichika's grumbling over the clothes on the floor of the living room ceased as he viewed Chifuyu's naked body. She shook her long, silky, black hair free from its ponytail and gave Ichika a smouldering look. "I'm ready."_

 _Ichika swallowed and nodded retrieving a pillow for Chifuyu to rest her head upon._

" _You seem rather excited." She said eyeing Ichika's crotch with hunger in her voice._

" _Who can blame me, when I have a beautiful naked woman in front of me?" He replied, motioning Chifuyu to lie down in front of him. She did so, and after applying some oil and warming his hands proceeded to massage her back using both thumbs and the palms of his hands. "Mmmmm,"Chifuyu purred as the knots of the day started to unwind. "You sound like a cat, maybe I should change your nickname to Neko," Ichika mused, his hands making their way down to her buttocks._

" _Don't you dare," Chifuyu mumbled before suddenly gasping as two of Ichika's fingers had lightly brushed against the delicate folds of her honey pot. Noticing how slick with juices it was Ichika said "How about we skip the rest of the massage?" Before stripping his own clothes off and adding them to the pile on the floor._

" _Well you're certainly being assertive today," Chifuyu teased before lifting her rear so that Ichika could take full advantage of it._

" _Thanks for the meal," He said jokingly clasping his hands together and bowing his head before starting to lick at the lips that were wet with expectation._

" _Oooh~, oh god, yes!" Chifuyu said biting her lip as she forced herself not to scream from the pleasure radiating from her vagina. Her eye's suddenly shot open wide as Ichika had moved from the folds and was currently lapping at her clitoris, at the same time slowly inserting two fingers into her, probing for a spot he knew very well. Finding it he started gently rubbing back and forth all the while nibbling on the sensitive bud of nerves._

" _I can't take it!" Chifuyu practically yelled as she climaxed, her vagina convulsing and gripping around the fingers that were causing the sensation._

" _Hah, Hah, Hah," she panted as Ichika withdrew his fingers, turning over onto her back she moaned, "I can't wait dear, I need you inside me, now!" Ichika smiled and started to move over her-_

Chifuyu woke up. "Goddammit! Just five more minutes!" she complained, suddenly realising that the bedsheets were wet from sweat and other juices, she said ruefully, "Ah well, looks like I'll need to get some new ones."

At class the next Monday, Maya Yamada-sensei had an announcement, "Well everyone, we have a transfer student joining us today, all the way from France. Please make her welcome."

A few of the girls gasped as they watched Charlotte Dunois enter the room, mutterings of "How pretty," were heard before the girl at the front of the class spoke: "Hello everyone my name is Charlotte Dunois," the blonde girl said in a lilting french accent. "I hope to enjoy our time together, thankyou for having me," she finished, bowing her head. As she raised her head she gave a penetrating stare and then a bright smile directed solely at Ichika.

"Huh?" Ichika came out with before the girl next to him asked, "Hey, Orimura-kun, do you know her?"

"No... I've never met her before in my life," he replied looking at Charlotte curiously as she made her way to a free seat at the back of the class.

Meanwhile standing in the corner of the class Chifuyu was silently grinding her teeth.

After class, as Ichika was preparing to leave, Charlotte came up to him, "Hello, I'm Charlotte Dunois, but you can call me Charlotte."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Ichika Orimura, you can call me Ichika."

"What are you doing now Ichika? I was thinking it might be nice to have a sparring training session, I have my own IS too," that said with a bright smile.

"I'm sorry, but I'm still recovering from some injuries I sustained last week, maybe later?" Ichika replied.

"Oh, uh, ok sure, see you later Ichika."

"Yeah, see you later."

Laying on his bed after dinner, Ichika was still sorting out his feelings, thinking back on the advice his friend Dan had given him, he thought, 'I guess he's right, it doesn't matter if we both love each other.' That he loved Chifuyu was without a doubt, there was hardly a moment of the day when she wasn't in his thoughts. 'But how to go about it, she thinks I don't remember the conversation, should I just tell her I remember, or should I just confess regardless?' Thinking that honesty was the best policy he resolved to let her know he remembered, but when?

 _THE NEXT DAY_

"Well everyone I have some rather unexpected news." Yamada-sensei said rather nervously the next day, "It appears we have another transfer student."

"What? Another one?"

"Two in two days? What's going on?"

"Silence!" Chifuyu ordered sternly to the gossiping girls, whilst saying to the new transfer student, "Laura, introduce yourself."

"Yes, Instructor," Laura responded folding her hands behind her back.

'Instructor?' Ichika thought as Laura continued.

"My name is Laura Bodewig."

"Uh, is that all?" Yamada-sensei asked.

"Yes," she replied looking over the class, spying Ichika, the silver haired girl walked over to him and said, "So you are the one who saved the Instructor's life?"

"Uh, yeah," Ichika said jerking back as Laura had pointed a finger in his face.

"Then I will take both you and the Instructor back to Germany with me!"

"Whaaa-?" All of the girls in the class exclaimed as Chifuyu put her face in her hand 'Idiots, all of them' she thought.

 _THAT NIGHT_

Ichika was looking at some information regarding advanced maneuvering when there was a quiet knock on the door. "Come in." Ichika called

"How are you feeling, Ichika?" Chifuyu asked as she entered the room. "Don't strain yourself now that you're out of the wheelchair."

"I'm fine Chifuyu-nee, I think I could start training again soon.."

"No!" Chifuyu cut him off. "You are not well enough yet."

"Chifuyu-nee I'm fine. The doctor has said as much, and I need to get back to training so I don't fall behind the others."

"I said NO!"

"Dammit why not?" Ichika yelled stunning himself, for he had never raised his voice at Chifuyu before.

Chifuyu was equally stunned, and in her shock she said quietly "Fine, see if I care." Before walking out.

Closing his eyes, Ichika thought, 'Well I handled that stupidly. I'm not wrong though, I need to be strong so I can protect her!'

Suddenly feeling very tired he crashed on the bed and within seconds was asleep.

Back in her room, Chifuyu was sitting in a chair, 'Dammit! Why is he so stubborn!' smiling ruefully to herself, 'I guess in that way we're the same, I just reacted out of fear. I'll have to apologize at some stage, for he's right he needs to keep training.' Stifling a yawn she looked towards the fridge that held several beers, but shaking her head she said "No, not again, a good night's sleep is what I need," Smiling softly she added, "Maybe I'll dream of him again," her humour restored she changed into her sleepwear and went to bed.

 _THE NEXT DAY_

"So there you have the pairings for the tournament next week," Yamada-sensei noted pointing at the screen, "It will be a 2 on 2 tournament, the first team with both ISs out of shield energy loses."

'Hmm me and Charlotte?' Ichika thought, 'That might be okay the Rafael Revive has ranged capabilities while I'm close quarter. What's this? We're up against Houki and Laura?'

Looking at Laura, Ichika thought about her rather confusing declaration the other day, 'What the hell was she on about? It looks like she knows Chifuyu-nee, I guess from nee-san's time in Germany.' Not looking at Chifuyu as they had not spoken since their argument he went over to Charlotte and said, "How about a training session this afternoon, Charlotte? We can work on our strategy for the tournament. I can't go full-on yet, but we can definitely coordinate our tactics."

"Sure Ichika, I'd love to," Charlotte replied giving Ichika a radiant smile.

"Er ok, good I'll see you in the training arena after class then."

Standing in the corner of the room, Chifuyu was watching Ichika interact with Charlotte, 'Damn, he's ignoring me! He hasn't met my eyes once!' Suppressing a sad sigh, she focused on the rest the lessons for the day. 'We're going to have to talk, after watching him train this afternoon I'll send him a message asking him to drop by my room.'

After completing a fruitful training session with Charlotte, watched on by the jealous glares of Houki, Cecilia and Ling, Ichika was changing when his cell phone buzzed:

"Ichika, if you're free, could you stop by my room, please?" Sender: Chifuyu Orimura-sensei.

Ichika was about to ignore it when he noticed the word "please", 'I better go, if she's said please then I'll just look childish if I don't,' the real reason he didn't want to was not the argument, but rather his decision regarding his feelings that he had come to earlier. 'If I can find an easy way to bring it up then I will, if not I won't.'

 _Knock Knock_

"Come in," Chifuyu called, sitting at her desk. Steeling herself she opened her mouth to apologize to Ichika as he entered the room, however he beat her to it: "I'm sorry nee-san for the way I acted and for yelling at you." Ichika said bowing his head. Her face changing into a soft smile, she replied, "I'm sorry too. I guess we're both stubborn." She broke into a chuckle when she saw Ichika's jaw hanging open, shocked by an apology that she rarely offered.

Ichika started laughing with her and the tension of the last couple of days melted away. Her voice sobering as she added: "Just please be careful. You're too precious for me to lose."

Ichika said, "I promise nee-san," sensing this was the right time, he readied himself "Nee-san, I-"

 _Buzz Buzz Buzz_

Ichika was cut off as Chifuyu's phone started ringing. "Hello, yes Yamada-sensei..." Ichika sighed, and motioning to Chifuyu, he left. Heading back to his room he was taken aback to see Charlotte waiting outside his door...


	10. ProtectorProtected (05-01 17:31:21)

**A/n:** Slightly shorter but important, enjoy.

Cheers Vandalbear

I don't own Infinite Stratos blah blah blah...

 **Chapter Nine**

Ichika slowed as he made his way to his room, which happened to have Charlotte waiting for him with a nervous smile on her face. 'What's she doing here?' He wondered as he used his key to unlock his door, saying "What's up Charlotte?"

"May I come in for a little bit?" She asked in that lilting french accent.

"Uh, yeah sure, I guess." Ichika replied as he opened the door, "Come in make yourself at home, would you like a cup of tea?"

"N-no thankyou." Charlotte stammered as she followed in behind him.

"Well what can I do-" Ichika never finished that sentence as all of a sudden he was pushed from behind onto his bed. As he turned over, getting ready to defend himself, he stopped in shock as Charlotte had taken off her school blouse and was now attempting to straddle him.

"Charlotte, what the hell are you doing?" He almost yelled, checking himself as he didn't want the girls in the rooms next door to hear him and investigate.

"I find myself very attracted to you Ichika," she responded, now completely on top of him, "I thought I could be your girlfriend, no?"

"Listen, I don't know what's gotten into you but this isn't funny, for the love of god please get off!" He pleaded, as he thought 'This is bad if anybody sees this there'll be hell to pay, and I'm the one to pay it too. There's no way anyone will believe me when I'm the only guy in an entire school full of girls.'

"This is no joke, Ichika. I'm serious, please can I be with you?"

"L-look I don't know what's going on but it's impossible for you and me to be together, for I have someone I love." Ichika said as he was trying to frantically think of a way out of the situation...

Back in her room Chifuyu had just finished the call with Yamada-sensei about the upcoming tournament. 'Hmmm,' she thought 'Ichika looked like he had more to say, I better go over and see what it was.' With that she got up, exited her room and made her way to the other side of the dormitory where Ichika's room was...

'Huh? The door's unlocked,' clearing her throat she opened the door saying "Ichika, you loo-" the word's Chifuyu had died on her tongue as she saw Ichika on the bed with a half naked Charlotte on top of him. Inside her body she felt a sharp piercing pain burn through her heart as she struggled for an instant to regain her composure, and slipping automatically into teacher mode she said in a growl "What do you two think you're doing? I don't care what you do in your free time but there will be none of this sort of behaviour whilst at school!" Charlotte had lept off Ichika desperately trying to put her blouse back on. Continuing on she added "Orimura, Dunois, you are both in detention starting Monday until I deem you have learnt your lesson. Dunois back to your room, NOW!" After Charlotte hurriedly left the room, Ichika tried to say "Chifuyu-nee..."

"I don't want to hear it Orimura..." Her voice cracking, Chifuyu turned on her heel and left to go back to her room. As she did Ichika saw a couple of tears drop from her eyes. 'Crap,' he thought, 'this is the worst possible thing to happen, I've got to go after her.'

Picking himself up, he hurried out the door and all but ran after Chifuyu.

After she closed her door, Chifuyu leant up against it and started to sob silently.

 _KNOCK KNOCK_

"Chifuyu-nee, please, can you let me in?"

"No!"

Frowning Ichika thought of a solution that will get her to open the door. Clearing his throat and, leaning into the door, he said very quietly, "I remember the park..."

Chifuyu's heart felt like it stopped when she heard that. Unlocking the door she moved further into the room with her back to the door unable to face him.

Hearing the door unlock Ichika opened it and slowly entered. Seeing his sister with her back to him he opened his mouth to speak, but Chifuyu spoke first: "And that scene before was your answer was it?" She asked in a trembling voice.

"No!" Ichika answered sharply, "I swear, I thought she just wanted to talk tactics about the tournament, when she jumped on me. I don't know what the hell was going on."

Turning around, her white face paler with what could only be described as fear, Chifuyu looked into his eyes. Nodding she said "I believe you, you've never been one to lie."

Letting out a lung full of held breath, Ichika steeled himself for the question he knew was coming.

"So you remember everything that happened?" Chifuyu asked in a small voice.

"Yes," he nodded a blush starting to creep up on his cheeks.

"So what is your answer?" Chifuyu said eyes down, with a matching blush of her own.

This was it. The answer Ichika gave now would forever change the course of both of their lives. Nervously swallowing, he took a deep breath and, looking directly at Chifuyu, he said, "I Love You too, not just as my sister but also as a woman, both physically and emotionally." Continuing on, as Chifuyu raised her eyes, "I want to be with you forever, through whatever life throws our way. You are the most important and precious thing in my life."

At that Chifuyu broke down into full blown tears, but any sadness was belied by the smile brilliantly radiating across her face. Ichika moved to hug her, and the two came together as one, lending each other their strength. After a few minutes, Chifuyu pulled back a little and leaned her forehead onto Ichika's. "I don't know what the future holds, but together we can get through anything," she said smiling, and when she saw a corresponding smile of Ichika's, she leaned her mouth slightly forward expectantly, and was thrilled when Ichika replied by lightly kissing her lips. It didn't last long but both of them felt an electric shock pass through their bodies. Starting to blush Ichika stammered "Sorry Chifuyu-nee I'm not very good, I haven't done this before." Staring down not wanting to meet her eyes, he felt her hand beneath his chin, lifting his head up and she said to him "It's ok, neither am I. I haven't kissed many men before and I've never had sex either."

Ichika was stunned, "Really? Why? You're so beautiful! You could have had any man you wanted."

Chifuyu chuckled at that, recalling a similar conversation she had had with Yamada-sensei. Still chuckling, but now with an undertone of desire she said, "I've never met any man up to my standards before... Except you that is." Now laughing outright as Ichika's jaw was hanging open, Chifuyu could no longer contain herself and started heaving with laughter.

"Ha ha very funny." Ichika said in a flat tone slightly miffed; however that feeling didn't last long as Chifuyu's laughter was contagious and soon he was laughing along with her.

Ten minutes later saw them seated at the table both with a mug of tea in their hands as they proceeded to discuss where to go from here.

"Although we are now together," Chifuyu started, inwardly thrilled just by saying that out loud, "We should carefully think about how we move forward."

"I agree Chifuyu-nee, of cour-"

"Chifuyu." She interrupted him with.

"Huh? Sorry?"

"I want you to call me Chifuyu only, from now on when we are alone, please?" She asked nervously.

Ichika's slight shock at that quickly diminished and he smiled "Of course, Chifuyu."

Seeing her pleased look he went on, "I was thinking that obviously in school it will still be as student and teacher," Chifuyu nodded at that, "But also I think that, except for here, when we are out together on d-dates and such we might still need to be careful, especially around the local area."

Pleased by his thinking which had mirrored her own, Chifuyu said "I agree completely, for two reasons first that we are student and teacher, and secondly because we are also brother and sister..." She stopped at that as Ichika had developed an angry expression.

Dan Gotanda's comments had been revolving around Ichika's head ever since he had asked his friend his advice, and now after thinking about what society would say Ichika found himself furious, "I want to say to hell with what anyone thinks! But I do not want to have you the object of gossip and scorn." Ichika said in a low calm voice that Chifuyu knew that he used only when he was truly angry. Reaching across the table she knew her suspicions were correct as under her hand Ichika's forearm was tense and the muscles rigid.

"I know dear," She said soothingly "I feel the same way, it isn't fair, but I also don't want you ridiculed either," giving him a smile she hoped would help calm him down.

As she smiled at him, Ichika felt his anger ebbing away, putting his hand on hers with a rueful smile he said, "Yeah I know. Well now that's sorted, how fast or slow do you want to go? As I said I don't have any experience with this."

"Let's just go at an easy pace, let things come as they will. We have our whole lives together after all." Thankful that Ichika had asked about this, as she herself was a bundle of nerves and inexperience; Chifuyu brought up another matter. "What are you going to do about Dunois?"

Ichika scratched his head and replied thoughtfully, "Hmmm, well I'm just going to have to find out what the hell that was about. I don't want any bad feelings or misunderstandings as we are still partners for the tournament next week."

"Hmmph," Chifuyu grunted before asking, "What are you smiling at?"

"Are you jealous?"

"N-no of course not!" She stuttered, and as Ichika started chuckling she responded, "So I am alright? I swear you'll regret it if you don't stop laughing!" She threatened playfully.

"Oh? How?" Ichika was trying to stifle his laughter without success.

"Well I thought I might announce to the class exactly why you and Dunois are in detention." Now it was her to turn to grin as she saw Ichika's face blanche as he considered what that information would do. 'The other girls will freaking kill me!' he thought, out loud saying, "I'll be good."

"Okay, now after the events of tonight I think we should both go to bed, in separate rooms." She added, for her desires caused her to not trust herself to hold back, especially after they had just agreed to take it slow.

"Yes Chifuyu." Standing up, Ichika gave Chifuyu another hug and a slightly longer kiss, and went back to his room.

Both of them found it very hard to sleep that night.


End file.
